Author: Michael J. Blythe
Timeline for Captain Abijah Savage
2 July 1744. Abijah Savage was born in Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut to Captain Joseph Savage (1711 – 1755) and Prudence Sage Goodrich (1711 – 1755). Middlesex County was created in May 1785 from portions of Hartford County and portions of New London County. Middletown was the county seat of Middlesex County from its creation in 1785 until the elimination of county government in 1960.
24 July 1744. Baptized in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut.
14 December 1755. Father, Joseph Savage, dies in Middletown Upper Houses (later Cromwell)[1], Hartford (later Middlesex), Connecticut.
1754 – 1763. During the years of the French and Indian War, “a ‘train band,’ or militia company, was raised in the North Society of Middletown. The names of SAVE, [Joseph] SAVAGE, STOW, and others appear amongst the number of those who were commissioned as officers of the General Court.” History of Middlesex County 1635-1885.
1761. Abijah Savage along with brothers Joseph Jr., Fortanus, and Samuel join the British forces and serve until discharged in 1763, at the end of the war. Collins, R. Thomas. One Life at a Time, A New World Family Narrative, 1630-1960. Ravensyard, Fairfax, VA. P. 102.
20 August 1765. Marries Martha Strickland Torrey.
26 February 1769. Daughter Chloe Savage is born.
1773. “Served as (on) Society’s Committee.”
1 May 1775. Selected as a Lieutenant in the 4th company of General Spencer’s 2nd Regiment. The appointment is attributed to his respectability, age and experience in French and Indian War. Marches to Boston to surround British (Thomas, p. 102).[2] Was among the first to take up arms according to History of Middlesex County.
16 June 1775. 2nd Regiment joins the forces of General Israel Putnam preparing fortifications on Breeds Hill.
17 June 1775. Battle of Bunker Hill and retreat to Charlestown.
2 July 1775. Washington arrives and takes command of the Continental Army, established by a resolution of the Congress on June 14, 1775.
13 September 1775. Expeditionary force under Arnold departs Cambridge for Newburyport and to Maine for the 350-mile trek to Quebec. Dates listed here are according to the Dearborn Journal, Darley, Stephen. Voices from a Wilderness Expedition, The Journals and Men of Benedict Arnold’s Expedition to Quebec in 1775. Author House, 2011. P.104. Abijah Savage is one of 1,067 men who will attempt the arduous journey to Quebec under Arnold.
13 September 1775. Marched to “Mystick,” MA. Perhaps a place on the Mystic River.
14 September 1775. Marched to Salem, MA
15 September 1775. To Ipswich, MA. 13 miles from Salem. 31 miles from Cambridge.
16 September 1775. To Newbury Port. 11.4 miles.
17 September 1775. Being the Sabbath, attended Meeting.
18 September 1775. Boarded vessels.
19 September 1775. Sailed for mouth of Kennebek River, Maine.
25 September 1775. Board the bateaux and begin the trek up the Kennebek River.
13 November 1775. Forces cross the Saint Lawrence River.
31 December 1775. Attack on the citadel. Colonel Arnold’s forces were to go through St. Rocks, pass Palace Gate, and into the Lower Town. A large portion of the force, 350 men including Abijah Savage, is captured. Officers who were not wounded were placed in a large building called the Seminary. Voices, pp. 115 -118. Darley has Abijah Savage serving as the quartermaster, assigned to Headquarters Company. He started the expedition as a Lieutenant in Captain Oliver Hanchett’s company.
8 June 1776. Mary Savage, citing Abijah’s captivity, appeals to the state assembly for her husband’s wages which were due him. They were paid. (Hinman, Royal R. ed. A Historical Collection, from Official Records, Files, &c., of the Part sustained by Connecticut during the War of the Revolution, p. 218.
10 January 1777. Abijah Savage is released from British captivity in a prisoner exchange and returns to Middletown.
25 February 1777. Abijah Savage is appointed a captain in Colonel Henry Sherburne’s 22nd Regiment, an “additional” regiment, composed of soldiers from multiple states (Johnston, p. 253; Collins, 108). Sherburne's Regiment was one of sixteen additional regiments authorized by the Continental Congress in late 1776. It was organized on January 12, 1777 with soldiers mostly recruited from Rhode Island and Connecticut.
24 November 1777. Birth of son, Abijah Savage.
1777 – 1780. Sherburne’s Additional Regiment was at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania during the winter of 1777 to 1778 (No, it wasn’t) and was engaged at the Battle of Rhode Island in August 1778. The battle ended inconclusively, but the Continental forces withdrew to the mainland and left Aquidneck Island in British hands. The battle was the first attempt at cooperation between French and American forces following France's entry into the war as an American ally. In 1779 the regiment was stationed at West Point, New York where they built Sherburne's Redoubt - a small fortification covering the land approaches to Fort Clinton. It was also engaged at the Battle of Staten Island on January 15, 1780. It was disbanded in January 1781 when it was consolidated with the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island regiments to form the Rhode Island Regiment.[3] Among Abijah Savage’s duties was officer in the guard of French General Marquis de Lafayette (Collins, 108) who served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island.
19 May 1780. Letter from Captain Abijah Savage in Morristown to General Washington, requesting discharge. (Papers of George Washington). Sherburne’s regiment has been disbanded / reorganized, and Savage’s men have been dispersed to other organizations.
25 May 1780. Mutiny of the Connecticut Line. While in quarters at Basking Ridge, New Jersey, near Morristown, the Eighth Connecticut Regiment turned out about dusk on 25 May to protest a lack of food. There were no ringleaders in this spontaneous event, which spread to the Third, Fourth, and Sixth Connecticut Regiments as well. Colonel Walter Stewart of Pennsylvania mediated a settlement and the troops returned to their huts, although Colonel Return J. Meigs, acting brigade commander, had been accidentally bayoneted in the side. The historian Carl Van Doren has said, "The whole affair was soon over and afterwards disregarded" Van Doren, Carl. Mutiny: The Story of a Crisis in the Continental Army, pp 22-23. New York: Viking, 1943.
1 June 1780. Captain Abijah Savage retired from the Army (Johnston, p. 253).
May 1783. The first meeting of the Society of the Cincinnati was held at a dinner at Mount Gulian (Verplanck House) in Fishkill, New York, before the British evacuation from New York City. The meeting was chaired by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton, and the participants agreed to stay in contact with each other after the war. Of about 5,500 men originally eligible for membership, 2,150 had joined within a year. Abijah Savage was an original member (Johnston, 375).
May 1802. Abijah Savage serves in the Connecticut House of Representatives, May Session (Roll of State Officers and Members of General Assembly of Connecticut, from 1776 – 1881, Hartford, 1881, p. 133).
1824. President James Monroe and Congress invite Lafayette to visit the United States, in part to celebrate the nation's upcoming 50th anniversary. Lafayette arrived at New York on 15 August 1824, accompanied by his son Georges Washington and his secretary Auguste Levasseur. He was greeted by a group of Revolutionary War veterans who had fought alongside him many years before. New York erupted for four continuous days and nights of celebration. He then departed for what he thought would be a restful trip to Boston but instead found the route lined by cheering citizens, with welcomes organized in every town along the way (Unger, Harlow Giles (2002). Lafayette (Kindle ed.). John Wiley & Sons, pp. 7840 – 7868). Lafayette will be a guest of Abijah Savage in Middletown, Connecticut en route to Boston (Collins, 108).
9 June 1825. Abijah Savage dies in Middletown, Connecticut. He is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Cromwell, Middlesex County, Connecticut (FAG).
4 July 1826. The United States of America celebrates its fiftieth anniversary.
[1] Originally part of the Mattabesset settlement, in 1651, the area became known as Middletown Upper Houses—being separated from Middletown by the Sebethe River. Settlers thrived in the area and, in 1851, incorporated, completing their separation from Middletown and forming the town of Cromwell. https://connecticuthistory.org/towns-page/cromwell/
Cromwell embraces the part of Middletown lying north of Little River. It is bounded on the south by that river, west by Berlin, north by Rocky Hill, formerly a part of Wethersfield, and east by the Connecticut River. The first settlers occupied land along the Connecticut or Great River, near the Little River Meadows included in the southern part of the village. Among the families who settled on the north side of Little River, were the following, many of whom are represented by lineal descendants, at the present day: John KIRBY, Anthony MARTIN, Thomas RANNEY, David SAGE, John SAVAGE, Samuel STOCKING, Samuel WHITE, Thomas WILCOX, and John WILCOX. MARTIN, SAVAGE, STOCKING, WHITE, and WILCOX came from Hartford; RANNEY from Scotland; SAGE from Wales.
The two settlements were distinguished, at an early date, as Middletown, Upper Hausen (Houses), and Lower Housen (Houses). The History of Middlesex County 1635-1885. J. H. Beers & Co., 36 Vesey Street, New York, 1884
pp. 242-263
[2] Johnston, Henry P. ed. The Record of Connecticut Men in the Military and Naval Service during the War of the Revolution, 1775 -1783, p. 47, states that Abijah Savage was commissioned on 1 May 1775 and discharged on 1 September 1775, suggesting a transfer to the Continental Army and his volunteering for Arnold’s expedition.
[3] So Few the Brave. Anthony Walker. Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. 1981. pg. 148
Author: Michael J. Blythe
Abijah Savage, a native of Middletown, Connecticut, was a preeminent American warrior. Following in his father’s footsteps, Abijah, at the age of seventeen, joined the British forces with three of his brothers, and participated in the French and Indian War from 1761 to 1763. While Washington and his colonial officers gained valuable war-fighting experience, the contest was won by the English commanders and their soldiers. The young colonies never cooperated long enough to exploit their numerical superiority over the Canadians. Returning home, Abijah married Martha Torrey in 1765; the couple celebrated the birth of the first of many children, Joseph, named for Abijah’s father, in 1767.
On 1 May 1775, following Concord, Abijah joined the militia surrounding Boston and, as a result of his earlier experience, was appointed a lieutenant in General Spencer’s 2d Regiment. Washington assumed command of the militia forces soon after the Battle of Bunker Hill and began planning a two-pronged invasion of Canada and capture of Quebec to be conducted by Montgomery and Arnold. Lieutenant Savage answered the call for volunteers and joined Arnold’s expedition. The force departed Cambridge and sailed from Newburyport on 19 September to the Maine coast; a historical marker in Danvers, Massachusetts commemorates Arnold's expedition, placed by the Massachusetts Society, Sons of the American Revolution. By the time that Arnold reached the Saint Lawrence River in November, his force which numbered 1,100 when it departed Cambridge, was reduced to 600 starving men. Finally assaulting Quebec on December 31, the battle was a devastating loss for the Americans; Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, and Daniel Morgan was captured along with more than 350 men, including Lieutenant Savage. He remained a prisoner until January 1777, when he was released in a prisoner exchange after thirteen months of captivity. In March, he was appointed a Captain in Colonel Sherburne's Regiment of the Continental Army. The 1778 Muster Rolls of Sherburne’s Regiment indicate that Abijah Savage was serving as a company commander. The Continental Congress established this regiment as an “additional” regiment in reserve, formed out of companies from several colonies. One of Captain Savage’s duties during this period was service as “an officer in the guard” of French general, Marquis de Lafayette.
Eight letters from Captain Savage, all written during the war, are found in George Washington’s papers. Most written while he served as a quartermaster are requesting supplies; the letter of May 1780, composed in Morristown, New Jersey stands out as it reflects the sorry state of the Continental Army. His regiment has been disbanded, and Abijah remains without support or any form of compensation. He requests discharge to attend to the needs of his family.
Following the war, Abijah was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, formed in 1873 by the Officers of the Continental Line. In 1792, he received land on the Hocking River in Athens County, Ohio, in payment for his service. When Lafayette visited the United States in 1824, Abijah entertained him in his home in Middletown; he died the following year.